The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1887-05-10

were headquarters guard for General Meade,
while the Sixth and Seventh were used in
important positions, but did no fighting.
General James A. Halls Second Maine Bat
terry and Colonel Lakeman's Third Infantry
on the other hand, were in the thick of the
fight, and we regret that we can give only the
bare outline of the very gallant actions of
their commands.
THE WHEAT FIELD.
SEVENTEENTH MAINE IN FRONT OF LONG
| STREETS CHARGE.
When the Battle of Gettysburg began on
| July list by the attack ON Reynoids's First
Corps, the Seventeenth Maine regiment was
still on the march. 1t belonged to the
Third Army Corps, and with the Third and
Fourth Maine Regiments was included
in that Division which had been commanded
| by Phil Kearney. 1t was called the
red PATCH division because of the peculiar
mark with which Kearney distinguished his
| men. Birney now commanded this division,
while the brigade to which the Seventeenth
was attached was under the command of a
French Soldier, De Trobriand, a student of
military science, who had left the French
army to volunteer in our war. On the night
of July LIST, after General Reynolds had been
killed and the First and Eleventh corps
driven back through Gettysburg, De Trobri-
and's brigade had just reached Emmettsburg,
village about 10 miles south of Gettysburg,
on the Emmettsburg road, which is indicated
in the accompanying map. The brigade re-
manned at Emmettsburg, guarding pass,
through that evening and until o'clock the
next morning. the morning of the End day Of
July and second day of the Battle. AT 1.30
a. m. it received orders to come up to Gettys-
burg. During the morning of the I'd the Sew
enteenth moved up the Emmettsburg road,
passed the Peach Orchard, which lay UNI
disturbed on theirright, and going on a little
further towards Gettysburg filed off to the
east of the Emmettsburg road and halted
about 200 yards back of the Peach Orchard,
awaiting position in the line that Sickles
was then forming. The place where they
halted was in front of aIgroye. A diary Of
one of the officers says that it was about
noon when they came to this position. The
men were very weary. The day before they
had been moving about all day, and at EN-
mettsburg had rested but few hours. Then,
after tedious wait in column of about two
hours, starting from Emmettsburg at about
o'clock in the morning, they had marched
steadily until they reached the battlefield,
excepting brief halts for breakfast and
accommodating. The distance from Emmetts-
burg to Gettysburg was not in itself great.
but night marches are wearing, and
the presence of the enemy in the immeei-
ate vicinity rendered the progress slower and
more tedious. When the halt was made at
noon In front of the little grove, the men of
the Seventeenth improved the opportunity
to take lunch OF coffee and hard tack. But
this lunch was hastily dispatched. They
were in the immediate presence of the enc
my, and they all knew it; for as the regiment
turned off the Emmettsburg road it had re-
ceiyed the fire of the Rebel skirmishers, who
we're then feeling the Union lines.
The Seventeenth Maine, as they halted for
this brief rest before the great battle, num-
bered somewhat less than four hundred men
and officers. AT Charlottesville, two months
previous, they had lost about one hundred
and twenty-five of their number. More near
ly than any other regiment in the service, the
Seventeenth was composed of Portland men.
Company A was from Portland, and COM
manded by Captain Charles p. Mattocks;
| Company b was from Portland, and conf
manded by First Lieutenant Benz. C. Pennell,
afterwards promoted to captain, and killed
| in front of Petersburg while in command
| of the regiment. He was brave officer, and
when Gettysburg was fought was but twen-
ty-one years of age. Company E, then on
the left of the regiment, was from the vicin-
ity of Portland, many of the men coming from
Cape Elizabeth and Yarmouth. Captain
Ellis M. Sawyer commanded. Company ID
was from Portland and Lewiston, and COM
manded by Captain John G. Perry. Com
pany III, composed of men from Sacearappa,
was commanded by Captain Almon A. Fogg,
soon to be mortally wounded at the stone
wall in front of the Wheat Field. Company
G, then on the right of the regiment, made
| up largely of men from Mechanic Falls,
Norway, Oxford, Raymond and Casco, was
under command Of Lieut.. Edward Moore,
now of Deering. George w. Verrill, ESQ.,,
of this city, was second lieutenant. Com
pany came mainly from Oxford county,
but Joseph A. Perry, a Portland man, was
their captain. Company was from Saco
and Biddeford; William Hobson was cap
tain. Many Kittery men were in Company
| K.which was commanded by Captain Milton
M. Young, whose death was to follow the
coming conflict. Men from York and Frank
lin counties composed Company G, which
was commanded by a lieutenant Lieu
tenant Colonel Charles b. Merrill, of
Portland, commanded the regiment. Colonel
Thomas A. Roberts having been compelled
by disability to leave the command shortly
before Charlottesville. Major George A.
! West was second in command, and Lieu
tenant Charles w. Roberts, now of the
custom house, was adjutant
When the Seventeenth went to its hating
| place the Union lines had not been fully
formed. General Meades officers, there is
no doubt, had laid out q line running from
Little Round Top to the right along what
afterwards became the line of battle on the
third day. But General Sickles, discovering
Longstreet's corps massed beyond the EN-
mettsburg road and preparing to sweep away
the whole Union left and gain possession of
Little Round Top, was not contented with
Meade's line. He believed that it would be
better to form a line further in advance,
making use of the high ground of the Peach
Orchard and rocky eminences which lay to
the left of the Peach Orchard, and in the d.
rection of Round Top. Feeling that these
positions, If held by the enemy, would domi-
nate the Union lines, he took the response
bility of moving the Third corps into the adj
yanced position where the Second days bat
tie was fought.
Longstreet, when he attacked, found
Sickles's men forming the angle near the
Peach Orchard, one side extending from the
Peach Orchard diagonally towards Round
Top; the other side reaching from the Peach
Orchard to thepright towards what afterward
became the Union centre ON the Third day
fight. In this advanced position it so hap
pened that the Third corps held line near
ly as long as the rest of the line then estab.
lished Consequently, there was force
enough to hold it only in detached places,
necessitating the bringing up gilmore troops
during the action. Had this line been as
fully manned as other parts of the Union
line were, it is the opinion of soldiers
OF the Third Corps that Longstreet
could never have broken it. 2iThey fully be-
lieve that General Sickles was wise in max.
ing the line where he did, instead of taking
the position designated for him where his